All his life, Joseph Asunka has been particular about getting government to be more attentive and responsive to citizens. The reason is close to home. Growing up in rural Ghana, he never experienced governance in his formative years. “It felt like there was no way you could engage directly with government officials in ways that allow you to ask for services within your community,” he recalls.
Joseph continues to be motivated by the forward-thinking people in the transparency, participation, and accountability (TPA) space and the need to create and design programs that will continue to influence politicians and governments to do the right thing. He recently served as the Program Officer of the Global Development Program of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and was also a steering committee member of the Transparency and Accountability Initiative (TAI) donor collaborative. He has assumed a new role as the new Chief Executive Officer at Afrobarometer, a pan-African survey research network. He will also be teaching at the University of Ghana.
His biggest lesson over the years? – To be politically smart in your programs. He believes being politically smart about your programming “is not only about trying to change the system but also making sure that you can indirectly shape the politics around service delivery.”
